MICHELLE MCKINLEY
Staff Writer
The latest exhibit at the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art boasts an inconspicuous title: “Some Drawings.” But one step inside the on-campus museum reveals more than a few sketches by pop artist Jim Dine.
While seemingly random images of hearts, tools, Venuses, bathrobes and other common household objects serve as the subject for many of the works, the drawings are more than idle doodling.
Dine’s works utilize numerous media at one time, as he often uses pencil, charcoal, watercolor, acrylic and pastel in a single work. Even more interesting is the fact that after creating an image using these various media, Dine would then remove all or part of his image by erasing, sanding or scraping it away. These erasures created a ghost-like image that Dine used for later reworking.
This process of layering and erasing and layering again results in drawings that are richly complex and intriguing to see, as they seem to have a dream-like quality.
Museum Director Michael Zakian said people should visit the exhibit if only for the mere aesthetics of the colorful pieces, calling the drawings “beautiful.”
More than four decades of his work is represented in the exhibit and his style, described overall as pop art, walks a fine line between realism and expressionism. The Weisman exhibit features more than 70 large-scale drawings that explore Dine’s passion for the medium and it is the first major survey of his drawings.
“Today we are bombarded with tons of images from magazine photos to cell phone pictures, but looking at art is an entirely different experience,” Zakian said. “You can see someone’s soul and mind in their works.”
This holds true for Jim Dine’s pieces. The image of a Dine painting online or in a photo only shows one dimension of the image, but the beauty of Dine’s work is in the texture and can only be completely appreciated in person. Dine uses a variety of tools and utensils when creating a painting and it is his unique layering style that brings his paintings to life.
Dine’s 1983 piece, “Tool Drawing II,” is a perfect example of how viewing his work in person makes a dramatic difference. The painting is displayed both outside and inside the Weisman in different ways.
The drawing is shown on the outside exhibit banner, and is a photocopy of the actual painting. It simply looks like a bunch of tools. However, one step inside the exhibit and one realizes the mastery of Dine. The painting is so realistic that the viewer feels as if they could reach out and touch the tools.
The art displayed in the exhibit shows the emotion and personality of the artist. There are some dark pieces as well as some very beautiful scenic portraits.
“The drawings allow us to see many sides of his heart,” Zakian explained.
Having a little background on an artist always helps viewers understand the emotion behind the work and appreciate the art more. On Jan. 25, Connie Glenn and Zakian held a lecture titled “Jim Dine: Some Drawings, Some Talk — Observations from Four Decades.” Glenn is director emeritus of the University Museum at Cal State Long Beach and has known Dine since the 1960s.
According to Glenn, Dine got through school by drawing for his teachers because he did not have the necessary reading skills. In fact, Dine taught himself how to draw, and once he did he used his creativity to record his observations and perceptions.
Dine was raised in Cincinnati by his maternal grandparents, who owned a hardware store. As a teen, Dine worked in the store where he was surrounded by tools. These images of tools, such as the shovels, pitchfork and rake in “Tool Drawing II,” became a focal point for his works.
While Dine is known as one of the founders of the Pop Art movement in the early 1960s, and many see his drawings of tools as an extension of the pop art focus on everyday objects, his works hold a more autobiographical meaning for him.
Dine explains on a museum plaque why he does not consider himself a pop artist.
“I’m not part of the movement because I’m too subjective,” Dine said of his art. “Pop is concerned with exteriors. I’m concerned with interiors. When I use objects, I see them as a vocabulary of feelings … I used them as metaphors and receptacles for my marginal thoughts and feelings.”
Dine had his first pop exhibit in 1962 when he was 27 years old. Despite his early success he was not pleased with himself. He moved to Vermont and isolated himself until he taught himself to draw. His self-portraits and human figures are also part of the Weisman exhibit.
When visiting the exhibit, one should take notice of his later paintings. Dine has recently been remarried and has channeled his newly found happiness through his work. “Mid-Summer, Paris” is one of his recent works that is beautiful because of the use of charcoal, pastel and pencil that make the landscape come to life.
Dine has an interesting way of explaining his works, and though he has turned to landscape art that features more natural forms, he sees most of his works as landscapes in a sense.
“If instead of natural forms, I used tools, I still might say it was a landscape, or I could say it is a landscape of tools,” according to Dine on a museum plaque. “But really it’s an arrangement in space.”
“Jim Dine: Some Drawings” will be on display at the Weisman until March 25. The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission to the Weisman is free. For more information, visit the Center for the Arts Web site at pepperdine.edu/arts or call ext. 4851.
02-22-2007
